1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information providing system for performing settlement, updating of information, etc., by communicating data containing personal information and the like identifying the user of an identification card, such as an IC card, used for commercial transactions for example, and a method for the system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been an increase in devices which perform exchange of services or goods for payment of money, i.e., commercial transactions, such as POS (point-of-sales) terminals, automatic vending machines, and so forth.
However, such devices are configured based on the presumption that cash is to be used for payment, so the business operating the device must always keep the device stocked with change money, count and match the cash, take measures to prevent crime, and other such daily tasks, which are troublesome.
Accordingly, IC cards are beginning to be widely used for such commercial transactions, the IC cards being arranged with an IC module which stores or subjects to predetermined processing personal information identifying the user or data for the transaction, thereby providing the IC cards with settlement functions, and functions for points or electronic money.
Such commercial transactions using the IC cards are advantageous in that settlement can be performed simply by exchanging electronic data and, further, that the troublesome handling of cash described above can be done away with.
With IC cards or the like, data is written, deleted, updated, etc., using a dedicated reader/writer having transmitting/receiving functions, for example.
However, the user of such an IC card must use a special viewer (including POS terminals or the like) to confirm the data contents of the IC card. In the event that the user does not have access to such a viewer, the user has no way to know, make reference to, or confirm the contents of the data in the IC card.
There are dedicated viewers for electronic money, but either business or user must bear the cost of the terminal. Further, such an arrangement necessitates the user to carry a device which is not used for anything but occasional conforming of the contents of the IC card by the user.
Also, in the event that settlement is performed at a shop using the IC card, there are cases necessitating a numeric keypad for the user to input a PIN (Personal Identification Number) to the POS terminal or the like. However, there is always the possibility that another individual might observe the user inputting the PIN with a numeric keypad on the counter of a shop.
In the same way, there is the possibility that some sort of device might be attached between the numeric keypad and the cash register or personal computer or the like performing the transaction, to steal the numeric information which the user has input.